Broadcast networks such as those in radio and television offer advertising spots to finance operations. The matching of advertising spots to advertisements in a broadcast network differs from the matching in other media, such as online advertising, at least in part because of:
1. the nature of planning broadcast schedules in advance
2. the indirect nature of determining demographics and other traits of a listener of the broadcast; and
3. the one-way, one-to-many, public nature of a broadcast network.
Placement of advertising spots in broadcast networks is currently a complex and manual process that does not necessarily maximize benefit to either advertiser or broadcaster.